


On Courage and Omnipotence

by Wanderbird



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Genre: Gen, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:40:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23449426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wanderbird/pseuds/Wanderbird
Summary: Yes, even the moon seemed tiny beneath that smiling light.With Majora newly killed and the mask of a Fierce Deity before him, Link reflects-- and comes to a decision.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 42





	On Courage and Omnipotence

**Author's Note:**

> .....I wrote this at like two in the morning, and it was very trippy. I hope it makes sense to a reader who is not myself! <3

Yes, even the moon seemed tiny beneath that smiling light.

**:How hurtful!:** It exclaimed, though its smile never faltered. : **How could I be the villain, when They grace me with a win in every fight?:** And then it raised that double helix sword and swung it down, its face as wooden-still as ever, though something gleeful glinted on its surface. That joy—how could there be joy here, at the ending of the world? In this act of vast destruction, no matter how justified it was?

There was a scream.

Majora—what was left of it—crumbled into ash, and the world faded with it.

Link fell to his knees on grass that wasn’t there before.  
 _:Run,:_ those eyes whispered in his mind. : _And when you’re bad, you just run. That’s fine, right?:_ He no longer felt confused by the intent clearly hidden in those words, for he knew now they were never meant for him.

**:In every fight…:**

Link pitched forward. Shivering, he was still shivering, and why was he so cold?! Fingers scrabbled for purchase as he faceplanted in the ground, dirt digging beneath his nails until they came upon something smooth and warm. He started to bring it to his head, the motion automatic—and stopped.  
Peered at the relic in his hands.  
His very _bones_ had hummed in synchrony, under its power. There was so much of it! Power and light unending! There was so much he could _fix_ with this, so much he could undo, or repair, or—

**:You again.:  
** Link remembered.  
The mask was sealed so tight that Link was lost within it. Or maybe not? Who was he, he thought, if not the righteous manifestation of heroes? No wonder boredom rang through him now, with such power and strength coursing through his blood.  
 **:Insist on this foolishness as many times as you please, little demon.:** There never should have been joy in that voice. Not at a time like this. But joy there was, bright and inescapable as the light of that fierce deity he had become. : **Even if you run, I will smite you down. I vowed.:**

_I, I, I._ Link’s thoughts ran in incoherent circles. He did not move from the grass, his fingers did not twitch. _No, I don’t—this isn’t right—but I could do so_ much, _be so much_ more _with that power, so much better! If I were chosen, if I could win every fight—_

_**:I WONDER,:** _glaring circles in the night. Then later, those eyes reduced to shadows in a garden— _:If you do the right thing… does it make everybody happy? **Is that your true face?:** _

He could hear them all, now, their gasping questions overlapping with all those people who’d given him their faces, the masks he’d given the children in the moon. It drowned him, and he dropped the mask to clamp his hands over his ears. It did not shut them out.

_:Do these people… think of you… as a friend?:_ the children asked. _:What makes you happy? Does it make… other people… happy too?:_

_:Everyone has gone away, haven’t they?:_

That mask still unnerved him, its golden eyes staring through him as if seeing someone else. Link had thought maybe it wouldn’t be so creepy up close, hanging from a child’s face—but even here, it sent shivers down his spine.  
But then there was the heat of the deity possessing him, unrelenting and bright and strong, **_:win every fight…:_**

Link opened his eyes again to dirt and green and blessed silence, to grass tickling the inside of his nose. The mask sat curled in his fist, bare inches from his face. It waited patiently. The fierce deity within it had all the time in the world. And something struck Link then, some moment of clarity that burned where it touched.

_But… if I won every fight, what point would there be to courage?_ A voice inside him asked. _If I could repair the world with a smile and a sword, smite down all evil like that thing that just killed the moon—_ bit by bit, Link lowered the mask. _–who then would I be?_

_Well, let’s do something else,_ he thought.

_That’s fine, right?_


End file.
